Meeting Abstract

P3-11   -   Rules Driving Wingbeat Synchrony in Group Flight Behavior of Bats Weesner, A*; Fullerton, J; Bentley, I; Kloepper, L; Saint Mary's College Department of Physics and Biology; Saint Mary's College Department of Biology; Saint Mary's College Department of Physics and Chemistry; Saint Mary's College Department of Biology aweesner@saintmarys.edu

Many species of animals are known to participate in group movement, such as fish and birds, and movement of individuals within a group can be described by certain behavioral rules. Comparatively little is known about similar interaction dynamics of bats when flying in pairs or in groups, but prior observations suggest Brazilian free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasilensis) may synchronize wingbeats to conspecifics during their nightly cave emergence group flight. We tested the hypothesis that wingbeat synchronization happens when bats a) are positioned at specific distances from one another, suggesting bats synchronize wingbeats to experience aerodynamic benefits by flying in leader-follower pairs, or b) fly through the same point in space, suggesting bats synchronize wingbeats when receiving aerodynamic cues from wakes of conspecifics. Thermal video of cave emergence was obtained by placing a high-speed thermal camera underneath the entrance of a cave, and landmarks on all 354 bats in a 15-second period were tracked using the DLTdv8 toolbox. All possible pairs of bats were then identified, and the delay in wingbeats, trailing time, and parallel and perpendicular components of their velocities and positions were calculated. Our preliminary results indicate that wingbeat synchrony is more strongly influenced by bats flying through the same point in space rather than positioned at specific distances from one another, suggesting bats may be using aerodynamic cues of conspecific wakes to guide group flight behavior.